On another note, I have just tried to update my system specs, but unfortunately there is only space for very few caracters and I can't fill in all my system specs.

Maybe one of the moderators could have a look into this issue, or point me in the right direction in case I am not doing it right?

Thanks for your help in this matter.

Great.  Thanks a lot for the tips.  I have actually been trying the NLite, but must be doing something wrong as it wont boot from the DVD I create (and there are lots of settings I dont really follow in the process).  I used Nero to burn a std DVD and also a boot DVD, but no luck.  Maybe its because i burn DVD ROM rather than CD ROM so off to Maplin when they open for blank CDRoms and a backup 'non USB' FDD!

On the tip about where to connect the SATA RAID OS boot stripe pair - you say these have to go on the black ports?  The manual suggests that these are 'slave' only ports, but I guess that is in a non RAID config?  I definitely need to connect my first two drives where the OS goes to the black ports numbered 3 & 4, yes?

Thanks for the help as I hope it will be a cracking system once finalised, but I am on a steep learning curve !!!

D

 I ahd to use the black sata ports for my system drive since I have 4 media drives. For you, at the moment with 4 drives it probably won't matter and may even be easier if you do it the other way around (i.e. use the red ports for your system drives), but in case you want to have more media drives striped together you would be better off starting the way I suggested.

As mentioned before, make sure that windows will try to boot from the right RAID drives, no matter which ports you are going to choose.

In case that you can't get the RAID configured before you start to install windows, why not using a single drive as system drive and striping the remaining three in a RAID 0. This way you'd have very fast media drives and you'd be able to stripe the RAID drives once you have installed XP (with the ASUS driver CD).

I need to get out in the sun!!!!!  Arghhhh!

I have sucesfully created a bootable CD via the N lite (and guessed that the RAID format imported into it is 'regular PNP driver rather than text mode' drivers).  It gets so far and then BSOD (as I guess it cant see the drives).  I have tried pressing F6, but that asks for floppy drive.  Not sure how its meant to work.  Guess I'll have to create an ISO with text mode drivers and then I'm hanging a floppy next... 

I want two striped pairs for OS and Media as it will be very fast to boot, useful to store stuff that will be imported to Avid (music/GFX/big QT animations etc).  I really fancy doing it as there is no way I need 2Tb of media storage.  Should be very fast!.

Thanks so much for your help.

D

 Need to get out into the sun too.

If you only stripe two of your media drives as RAID 0 you'll be fine with editing HDV (i.e. DNxHD 145), for anything higher your drives are not going to be fast enough. With my RAID0 4 way stripe media drives I can (just about!) run DNxHD 220.

Have a think about what media you need to edit on. If you go down the HD route rather than SD or HDV you may want to get yourself two more drives.

The reason why I choose two smaller drives as system drives is that they have faster access times than larger drives and if your memory and FSB is configured right, it will give you a very responsive system. BTW in the grand theme of things 2TB is not really that much and you may realise soon enough that you need the space when it comes to onlining bigger projects.

I also use another 4 x 500GB drives (not striped) for backup. If one drive goes out in a RAID0 you'll loose ALL your data. I highly recommend that you have a though about backing up your media if it is file based (i.e P2 or XD ...). If you have a tape based workflow you only have to make sure that you backup your Avid projects folder. If you have that folder you can always do batch capture from the tapes to restore your projects.

Since you have a MOBO that supports 6 internal drives I'd seriously consider to buy two more drives, since they are so cheap nowadays and you'd be future proof. for any HD workflow.

I'm editing nothing at this rate :(  I've learnt that USB FDD dont work and whatever I try in NLite ends in BSOD as it cant access the drives.

More success with a ribbon cable FDD driver load via F6 - was starting to partition before it told me it couldnt continue when it went to format.  When does my RAID management utility come in?

I'm using one SATA port for the Optical so max 5 HDD for me.  Am now starting to think of a small single system drive as the boot, and it really isnt what I want to try though.  I'm going to add JMicron to the FDD F6 boot to try.  Why are the instructions from everyone SO INCOMPLETE!!!!!!  Arfggggghhhh ;)  What am I doing wrong or missing?  I've done this before succesfully on my Shuttle PC for crying out loud!

D

 You have to include the JMicron driver with nLite, as they control the black SATA ports on your MOBO!

Why not get a Raptor drive as system drive, they are really fast. If you connect it to the black SATA port and your optical drive as well you'd still have 4 red SATA ports available for your remaining 4 drives. You'd end up with a really fast system. 

Now I dont know how YOU KNOW THAT but I think it may well be true!!  I used 2 floppy disks in the end one for the Intel driver and one for the Micron (as i found the utility OVERWRITES the first set of drivers It creates on the floppy - arghh!).  That worked and OS intalled:-) 

I found no option/utility to create a RAID layout before XP finished installing, but am now using the Intel Matrix software to migrate the OS from C to a bootable striped pair on the first partition I created here.  The second OS allocated stripe partition will be used for Vista in 64 bit and MC 3 ultimately.  I wonder if the OS is migrating to the two black ports - how would I tell?  It's calling the boot stripe Drive 0 and Drive 1...  I guess a reboot after it finishes the migration in 3 hours will tell!

I like your suggestion for the fast OS HDD and then 4 stripes - maybe one to consider when I go to Vista 64 bit?

Its such a slow process this fumbling and thanks so much for your help.  I've learnt loads.

D